The 2026 Home, Health and Recreation Show began Friday with 90 vendors in the Civic Center—the highest attendance since the COVID pandemic.

NEW ULM – A line of 30 people deep waited in the Civic Center lobby for the 2026 Home, Health and Recreation Show to open Friday.

Even more waited in the Civic Center Parking lot. At 3 p.m., the doors open and the assembled crowd is free to explore the 90 vendor booths in the arena.

Bobbi Fuhr, co-chair of the Home, Health, and Recreation Show committee, said this is the largest Home Show since the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on the event. They had actually sold off vendor space for the year.

Fuhr credited the diversity of organizations and businesses for the show’s popularity.

New Ulm Chamber President Sarah Warmka said another benefit of the Home Show is that it gives visitors access to experts in a variety of fields. It is a good place to get questions answered regarding home improvement, health, entertainment and recreation.

Most of the booths at the shows were dedicated to the home whether it was home improvements or buying a home.

Kim Hanson at True Real Estate said there were a lot of visitors curious about the housing market in the community. Hanson said the markets are pretty tight, but the homes are moving quickly due to demand.

“Every buyer wants something different,” she said. Age of the buyer is often influences the type of home they are hunting for. The younger families look for homes with larger yards for the children. The senior buyers are looking for single-level homes.

New Ulm Real Estate also saw a lot of foot traffic at the show with their “Root for the Home Team” booth. Lisa Besemer with New Ulm Real Estate said currently patio homes and county homes were popular. In addition, there were a lot of customers looking for home appraisals.

“For us, the Home show is a chance to reconnect with previous customers,” Besemer said. “We can catch up with people we sold homes to.”

Besemer commented that the Home Show and the Farm Show earlier in the month are great ways to pull people out of their homes after a long winter.

“Its great to see our neighbors again,” she said.

One of the more popular booths was for Land Haven Development. It was rare to have a booth for community development at the Home Show, but Land Haven is an unusual housing development.

Land Haven Development was approved by the council. This development would create New Ulm’s first combination storage facility/residential dwelling neighborhood. Land Haven Development is a 6.85-acre property located at 2211 Jacobs Street, designed for bardominium units. A barndominium is a residential building combining a traditional barn-like structure with residential dwelling features.

Tony Gulden, developer for Land Haven, said it is a new concept, but it is catching on. There is a demand for this type of housing. He said there were a lot of people coming up to their booth with questions on how the development would work.

Gulden expected interest in the development to increase once they started construction this spring. There is some grading work needed on the site, but first bardominums should go up this season.

On the health side of the show, Memory Care Friends was one of the new organizations at the show. Geri Groebner said she and Karla Hansel started the organization last year. The two had completed support group training for dementia care.

Groebner said it was after the training that they realized there was enough support for memory care in the community.

“We wanted to change that here,” Groebner said

For the last five months, Grobner, Hansel and Sheri Dittrich have been promoting support for caregivers of memory care patients. The group’s goals is to reduce stigma, raise awareness and foster connection for dementia and memory care patients.

In March, Memory Care Friends hosted a dementia presentation at the New Ulm Library. Currently, the group is fundraising for a Music and Memories event and a wellness retreat for caregivers and individuals with dementia.

Sota Street Studio, a do-it-yourself pottery business, attended the show for the first time. Sota Street Studio opened on Minnesota Street last year and is developing a dedicated following.

Owner Tami Hanson said they kept hearing stories about parents or grandparents who made pottery.

“We like to tell them, ‘we can make it easier,'” Tammi Hanson said.

One of the oldest names in New Ulm Recreation was Wendinger Travels. The travel business’s booth was run by Michaela Howk on Friday afternoon. She said the business was doing very well, with most of their travel packages already booked out for the year. She said the Panama Canal Experience was one of their most popular trips, needing to be booked a year in advance. The Alaska vacation and the Canadian Rockies were also the quickest to book.

Howk said Wendinger Travels was celebrating 50 years in business this year. The family business planned to hold a 50-year celebration in May.

The Home Show will continue from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. Saturday and include special seminars. Seminars’ topics are 3D Imaging, Medicare basics, assisted living and first time homebuyer programs.